<p>At my school, Spanish is 5, orgo is 5, and cell bio is 4=14. No such thing as separate credit for lab courses, even though each of those 3 classes requires discussion sections and labs. It’s preposterous and insulting to think that course load is part time.</p>
<p>It’s fascinating to me that you felt like you’d be “held back” at an elite school and use this as your justification for choosing a state school. That’s a new one to me! I’ve heard many ways to justify choosing state school over elite school–price, location, environment, legacy, future plans, etc–but not that one. I’m sure it’s a more common reason than I realize. (Which isn’t to say anyone needs to defend a reason or justify a choice.) I’m happy to have chosen a state school for undergrad and I certainly do not regret it in the slightest, but I can only imagine an elite school would have expanded my opportunities rather than limited them.</p>
<p>^ Just thought of this: Purely talking about academics (rather than also about being developed as a whole person) , being overly concerned about being a successful preprofessional student in the eyes of adcoms could make a person feel like he is being held back academically. This is independent of attending an elite school or attending a state school.</p>
<p>Since there are more preprofessionalism at any elite school (not so much because of the school itself; more likely, it is because of the families these students come from) than at a state school, it may make you feel that way. But the same person will behave the same no matter what kind of school he chooses to attend.</p>
<p>I recently read that, even during the bottom of finance/i-banking industry (likely in 2008) when many college graduates had a hard time in landing a job, almost 34-35% of Princetonians still headed to the Wall Street successfully. This (and teh force behind it which may have more to do with the students’ family than the school itself) is truely the difference between an elite college and a state college.</p>
<p>In one year, a college senior (I think he was from Duke, but we can safely said the same about graduates from other comparable schools) posted here that sometimes he felt that the whole graduate class were heading to either the i-banking/consulting or a professional school, and nowhere else (He exaggerated it somewhat, of course.) There is another article which is about “the failure of ivy education is the Wall Street’s gain.”</p>
<p>On a different thread some of the poor Brown freshmen are trying to convince me that As are not all that free flowing in science classes! Someone took 4 classes and ended with 3 Bs for a GPA of 3.3 and mentioned most of their classes have only 30% As awarded. I would hate to see them balancing 5 classes because LizzyM says so. :D</p>
<p>Agreed. Some people need to play defense (making sure of getting enough As even though there are only 4 As at the maximum in a semester) and some people could play offense (shooting for 5 As or even 6 As) and are still without any blemish. (Hmmm…talking about the number of straight As excluding A-, DS did receive an award because of the number of As he had got at graduation even though I do not think he had purposely gun for it. It is likely because his percentage of As is high, resulting in the absolute number of As being high also.)</p>
<p>The same person could play offense at a given school, but he has to be satisfied with playing defense at another school.</p>
<p>In DS’s circle a few years ago, two played offenses. One was almost burnt out and decided to take two years to relax before attending a prestigious med school in NYC. The other did above average (gradewise) but not excellently. He was a STEM (chem, emphasis on organic chem) major, took more advanced orgo classes than almost all premeds did but attended a law school in the end. (Not willing to sacrifice his life too long for medicine.)</p>
<p>There are indeed more non-premed/non-pre-law students who play offense (load up tons of classes than the normal course load.) But they care more about the “rigor” than the grades as the grades are not that critical to them.</p>
I would guess that you didn’t need to work during your undergrad. Unfortunately, my son needs to work 10-15 hours per week to help pay for his expected contribution towards his COA. This semester is “light” for him with 4 classes as he has taken 5 classes the other three semesters, The bottom line is there are minimum credits each year to advance. The first year it was 8 credits and 16 after year two, 26 after year 3 and 36 to graduate. I really don’t see any questions being raised by SOM admissions. After he finishes sophomore year he will have satisfied every pre-med requirement (including Calculus, Stats, Psychology, Sociology, Genetics, Intensive Writing) except Physics which he will take next year. He will end the year with 17.5 credits which is 1.5 over the minimum.</p>
<p>^D1 was a froco and the frosh that started with 4 and dropped a credit down to 3 during the first semester really scared her. It’s nice that they can go a little lighter first year, but that leaves second semester with 5 classes.</p>
<p>Wow i feel totally thread jacked. Ok well I think I will most like keep the 14 credit hours and if i happen to have enough free time, I can stuff it with volunteering and other EC’s</p>
<p>Hypothetical question: If this “elite” school decided next term that students could take only two classes/semester and that they would be 2 credits apiece and so they would still be full-time and graduate on time, would this be ok with you? What if they said only one class/semester was ok(4 credits)? At what point would a little common sense kick in?</p>
<p>I am very fortunate and will forever be grateful to my state and the private donors that made it possible for me to get a high quality free college education. I plan to return the favor some day. But that certainly doesn’t mean I am not working. I volunteer a shift a week at Children’s Hospital in D.C., I’m a managing editor for my university’s science journal, I’m chairman for several sections of my fraternity, I work many (I’ve lost track how many) hours in my on campus lab every week, I represent my college at events whenever they need me, I must still put in an hour/day with my musical instruments (out of fear that part of my brain will degenerate if I don’t). We all have things we do out of class. It’s expected.</p>
<p>Common sense would say that the average Brown or Yale grad has better job/grad school prospects than the average University of Maryland grad so I’m not concerned at all that what Brown or Yale consider as full time course loads is inadequate or holding anyone back.</p>
<p>I’m honestly not sure why you are having such a difficult time with this. Several members have very patiently explained this type of credit system and at least 3 have kids who attended these schools, did fine on their MCATs, were not questioned by interviewers and were successfully accepted into medical school. It’s really not a big deal so I fail to see why there is the need for hypothetical questions about schools changing a credit system that is not a problem for anyone but you.</p>
<p>Plumazil - I have been thinking about 190 credit hours some more and it would take 23-24 credit hours each semester. Are you doing that many hours each semester?</p>
<p>^I know a guy who swears his full courseload at an elite private school would transfer as 42 semester hours at his home state’s school. 23-24/semester should be a walk in the park for any serious premed. ;)</p>
<p>He turned out just fine and has enjoyed a successful run at some great professional schools. Kid has way too many letters after his last name.</p>
<p>Guys who are talking about their courseload, are they fun? Do they have something more interesting to talk about? Seems to be like one of those “intense” people who are claiming reading thousands upon thousands of pages of extremely challenging academic material on a regular basis, those who my D. is trying to stay away from as much as she could.</p>
<p>Averaging about 17/semester, started with 55, currently have ~140. So you don’t need to ask in the future:
Major/minor: Chemistry/piano performance(I also play guitar, bass, percussion, and sing, and have been a featured soloist on piano and vibraphone)
GPA: 4.0 (I think it’s not fair that A+'s don’t count extra)
Trilingual: English/French/Spanish(working on Brazilian)
With any luck, I hope to have an MD/PhD before my 27th birthday, and cure cancer, autoimmune disorders and provide a new paradigm in pain relief before I retire.
Anything else?</p>
